Obviously, I haven't written on here in a long long time. I've been posting elsewhere, in a place that's focused solely on my personal life because....
I'm making a person. I'm due in two months (hence the LONG hiatus from THIS blog of about 8 months...I am 8 months pregnant.)
I'm hoping that eventually I will be able to post more profession-related writings regarding Library Science. But right now I focus on work AT work, and outside of work I focus on the enormous task of growing a human being, and freaking out about how the hell I'm ever going to handle this parenting thing when the little bugger arrives.
Wish me luck and hopefully I'll be back soon.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Sunday, January 11, 2009
A new kind of resolution, for readers?
Perusing my feeds today, I found the following list of 15 things to do for Readers this year. And it seems like the first do-able list of resolutions I've come across so far. With the exception of the reading a play aloud with friends, I think I may be able to get a few of these done in 2009...
Cool!
Cool!
Sunday, January 4, 2009
a little late for an 08 round up but oh well
I've never been good at New Year's resolutions. They don't stick. The only things that stick to me in January are calories. They stay close to my midsection/lower region. Haha!
But after perusing about a week's worth of people's 08 summation blogs, NY resolution blogs, etc, I've decided it's time to post something- anything on my own blog.
Here goes:
I've been spending the last few weeks literally cocooned into my couch with a winter blanket and movies. I typically don't watch a lot of movies, but for some reason, over the past few weeks I've watched so many movies I believe the number is larger than all the movies I've watched in the last two years, prior to the past three weeks. It's been a great way for me to relax, not-think, and sink into someone else's fantasy world or something. It has been the one thing that's put me at ease of late.
What I've noticed about my movie-watching? I'm as forgetful about movie titles and plots as I am about book titles and plots. I'm not going to bother posting all the ones I've seen from the comfort of my couch, but I AM going to start writing down summaries of all the books I read. So if you need a resolution, that's it I suppose. I need to remember more. So I'll be attempting to chronicle my book reading better- even if it's just a Word document on my computer at work, or my goodreads account. I just have to. Otherwise it seems really stupid to even bother reading a book. I recommend it later this way:
Patron: Can you recommend any good books?
Me: (brightening) OH YES! What do you like?
Patron: OH...(goes into different authors or genres...)
Me: (blank) Oh, well. Here's what I've read lately. (I can then point out the book and the title, but scramble to read the jacket flap or back cover to remember what I liked so much about the book)
So instead of taking some sort of herbal remedy to help with my ailing short term memory, I'm going to start writing things down. It's the only way I can remember things it seems.
I'm REALLY considering closing out my Myspace page. I am not a fan of facebook, I in fact loathe it and always have. However, everyone's migrating and checking in with two online social networks that operate in such similar ways is pointless at this point. My biggest concern is losing all of my Myspace blogs- which are much more journal-like and important to me since I've been logging my feelings there for a long long time. I've submitted a questions to "Tom" and his cronies about how to archive/save the blogs I've done of the years on Myspace and no one has answered. I think they may have the suspicion that I'm contemplating going to the dark side (facebook). So I may just have to take an afternoon and copy and paste all myspace blogs into yet another Word Document. We'll see.
For Christmas I gave my Grandpa a hard copy of my blog from my 2006 trip to England. He's always wanted to know what I did while I was there, and look at pictures, and I just always had it online and not in book form, so my 83 year old grandpa never really had the full story as other more tech-savvy members of my family did. I used a service called Blog2Print. It could be MUCH more user friendly, and it was absolutely a bear to try to edit anything through their service. But I was happy with the result for the most part. If you're going to use them, I have the following recommendations:
Make use of the Memoribilia page by adding more pictures.
Eliminate as much space as possible from your postings, as it adds to the length of the book and also the price per page.
Try as hard as you can to edit your blog in it's regular blog form before importing it into their service. I didn't, so my blog reads like a 7th grade English teacher's nightmare, typos and all.
Think about how much value long URLs have to the book form, and take them out. I have a few pages of lists of just web pages, which are convenient online, but don't make a lot of sense when paging through a book.
I got the hardcover, and was happy with the results. I can't vouch for the paperback form, but it's much cheaper to do that.
Once you publish through their site, they send you numerous valuable coupons to print out more copies of your book for much much cheaper than your original copy. But, I wasn't able to figure out how to edit the book before purchasing it again. So if you re-purchase it with a coupon, you may not be able to make any edits.
In closing 2008 was a banner year for me. So much changed and it really needed to. I have a feeling that even more is going to change in the upcoming year for me, and I'm ready for it. I need to learn to stop whining as much and roll with the punches more easily. Nothing's as important as I've made it seem in my cranky rantings online, and all it took was a little bit of hindsight and perspective to show me that.
So looking forward, I'll try to be better about posting, I'm not making any promises, but I hope everyone has a wonderful 2009 filled with health wealth (ha!) and happiness.
But after perusing about a week's worth of people's 08 summation blogs, NY resolution blogs, etc, I've decided it's time to post something- anything on my own blog.
Here goes:
I've been spending the last few weeks literally cocooned into my couch with a winter blanket and movies. I typically don't watch a lot of movies, but for some reason, over the past few weeks I've watched so many movies I believe the number is larger than all the movies I've watched in the last two years, prior to the past three weeks. It's been a great way for me to relax, not-think, and sink into someone else's fantasy world or something. It has been the one thing that's put me at ease of late.
What I've noticed about my movie-watching? I'm as forgetful about movie titles and plots as I am about book titles and plots. I'm not going to bother posting all the ones I've seen from the comfort of my couch, but I AM going to start writing down summaries of all the books I read. So if you need a resolution, that's it I suppose. I need to remember more. So I'll be attempting to chronicle my book reading better- even if it's just a Word document on my computer at work, or my goodreads account. I just have to. Otherwise it seems really stupid to even bother reading a book. I recommend it later this way:
Patron: Can you recommend any good books?
Me: (brightening) OH YES! What do you like?
Patron: OH...(goes into different authors or genres...)
Me: (blank) Oh, well. Here's what I've read lately. (I can then point out the book and the title, but scramble to read the jacket flap or back cover to remember what I liked so much about the book)
So instead of taking some sort of herbal remedy to help with my ailing short term memory, I'm going to start writing things down. It's the only way I can remember things it seems.
I'm REALLY considering closing out my Myspace page. I am not a fan of facebook, I in fact loathe it and always have. However, everyone's migrating and checking in with two online social networks that operate in such similar ways is pointless at this point. My biggest concern is losing all of my Myspace blogs- which are much more journal-like and important to me since I've been logging my feelings there for a long long time. I've submitted a questions to "Tom" and his cronies about how to archive/save the blogs I've done of the years on Myspace and no one has answered. I think they may have the suspicion that I'm contemplating going to the dark side (facebook). So I may just have to take an afternoon and copy and paste all myspace blogs into yet another Word Document. We'll see.
For Christmas I gave my Grandpa a hard copy of my blog from my 2006 trip to England. He's always wanted to know what I did while I was there, and look at pictures, and I just always had it online and not in book form, so my 83 year old grandpa never really had the full story as other more tech-savvy members of my family did. I used a service called Blog2Print. It could be MUCH more user friendly, and it was absolutely a bear to try to edit anything through their service. But I was happy with the result for the most part. If you're going to use them, I have the following recommendations:
Make use of the Memoribilia page by adding more pictures.
Eliminate as much space as possible from your postings, as it adds to the length of the book and also the price per page.
Try as hard as you can to edit your blog in it's regular blog form before importing it into their service. I didn't, so my blog reads like a 7th grade English teacher's nightmare, typos and all.
Think about how much value long URLs have to the book form, and take them out. I have a few pages of lists of just web pages, which are convenient online, but don't make a lot of sense when paging through a book.
I got the hardcover, and was happy with the results. I can't vouch for the paperback form, but it's much cheaper to do that.
Once you publish through their site, they send you numerous valuable coupons to print out more copies of your book for much much cheaper than your original copy. But, I wasn't able to figure out how to edit the book before purchasing it again. So if you re-purchase it with a coupon, you may not be able to make any edits.
In closing 2008 was a banner year for me. So much changed and it really needed to. I have a feeling that even more is going to change in the upcoming year for me, and I'm ready for it. I need to learn to stop whining as much and roll with the punches more easily. Nothing's as important as I've made it seem in my cranky rantings online, and all it took was a little bit of hindsight and perspective to show me that.
So looking forward, I'll try to be better about posting, I'm not making any promises, but I hope everyone has a wonderful 2009 filled with health wealth (ha!) and happiness.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Good Reads Updates
Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream: A Day in the Life of Your Body by Jennifer AckermanMy review
rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book chronicles a "Day in the life" of your body, outlining the specific functions from dawn til night. I particularly enjoyed this because it perfectly combined the art of the human condition with the science and chemsitry behind why-we-do/feel-what-we-do. I particularly enjoyed various quotes from famous writers, thinkers and philosophers from history throughout, which evoke a sense of commonality from hundreds of years ago to present. Recommended for adults.
View all my reviews.
This Is What I Did: by Ann Dee EllisMy review
rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book moves fast- short sentences and quick pace makes it a nice read that can easily be done in a day. I would recommend this to late middle-early high school, people who like trying to "figure out what happened".
The content is a bit icky towards the end, not a particularly "happy" story, so I would recommend this for reluctant readers in 8th-9th grade, people who have read other realistic fiction books that have gritty happenings within them.
View all my reviews.
The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan DowdMy review
rating: 3 of 5 stars
Ted's different, his mind works in different ways from the "normal" kids. When he, his sister and his cousins Salim go to visit the London Eye ferris wheel, Salim gets on the ride, and never comes back off. While their parents reel with grief and worry, Kat and Ted create their own theories on how Salim disappeared, and much of the book involves them "testing" their theories to track down their missing cousin. I liked this one, and I think people who enjoyed the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime might also appreciate Ted's personality and logic.
View all my reviews.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
shocking
This afternoon, in the quiet pre-schoolage-kids-infestation at the library, a woman came in with her preschooler and toddler, needing to pay a tiny fine. As I proceeded with the transaction, I noticed the preschooler, head-to-toe in pink everything- stocking cap, coat, dress, tights, boots and shoes, is quivering. Her face is blotchy and eyes are red. She looks literally terrified, as if she's just seen a ghost or had some terrific meltdown that exhausted her. She was literally shaken, and I looked at her and asked (cautiously), "Is there anything I can help you find today?"
Her mother looks at me and then at her terrified daughter. She says, "Well, we've just found out something- something not bad, but certainly shocking while at preschool. Honey, do you want to tell her what happened?"
Silence. The girl has lost the ability to speak, and she is now panting. Her eyes well-up with the thought of the shocking news she just learned.
The mother looks at me and says, "Well she's just found her first loose tooth. We thought maybe we could get the Junie B. Jones book..."
"Oh how exciting! Congratulations! Of course I'll find the book for you..."
and we sent her off with a story to hopefully calm the terror in her eyes.
Her mother looks at me and then at her terrified daughter. She says, "Well, we've just found out something- something not bad, but certainly shocking while at preschool. Honey, do you want to tell her what happened?"
Silence. The girl has lost the ability to speak, and she is now panting. Her eyes well-up with the thought of the shocking news she just learned.
The mother looks at me and says, "Well she's just found her first loose tooth. We thought maybe we could get the Junie B. Jones book..."
"Oh how exciting! Congratulations! Of course I'll find the book for you..."
and we sent her off with a story to hopefully calm the terror in her eyes.
It is time.
It is time for me to update my electronic "portfolio"- something that I should've done a year ago, but couldn't bring myself to re-write the HTML and move all the files over. It used to be hosted on my LIS grad school server, and I'm coming upon it's demise since I've graduated.
So, if anyone who reads this (I see I have a FEW dots on the map now- hooray!) has an idea of a FREE place to host my portfolio, that'd be super fantastic. I'll take any and all suggestions, as I'm clueless and have only found ones that cost money. I don't really make much of that so I'm looking for cheap and effective.
About half of the webpages I created I made in Notepad, the other half in SeaMonkey, if that makes a difference.
This is the kind of thing I link to for my portfolio.
And this one....(not incredibly proud of this one)
and other things like this.
I also had a portion with a resume, coursework, biographical information, etc.
Ideas anyone?
So, if anyone who reads this (I see I have a FEW dots on the map now- hooray!) has an idea of a FREE place to host my portfolio, that'd be super fantastic. I'll take any and all suggestions, as I'm clueless and have only found ones that cost money. I don't really make much of that so I'm looking for cheap and effective.
About half of the webpages I created I made in Notepad, the other half in SeaMonkey, if that makes a difference.
This is the kind of thing I link to for my portfolio.
And this one....(not incredibly proud of this one)
and other things like this.
I also had a portion with a resume, coursework, biographical information, etc.
Ideas anyone?
Sunday, December 7, 2008
exhausted
Is anyone else totally exhausted? I mean, the past three days have just sucked the life out of me. I imagine part of it is the weather- snow snow snow and cold cold cold. Other contributing factors may include: stressful holiday and work obligations, not having much physical activity, absorbing weight-of-the-world that shouldn't necessarily be shouldered by me, etc. I'm just tired.
On days I don't have to work, I wake up thinking about work, I'm dreaming about work. So it really feels like I am working all the time. This isn't necessarily a bad thing- seeing as much (if not all) of the anxiety around work is created and maintained by my own psyche, however- there are days I wake up completely panicked that I'm forgetting something...which might be why my stomach, skin and head are all acty funny and revolting against the stress.
I'm reading this book: Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream, by Jennifer Ackerman. It is neither helping nor hurting my exhaustion. Basically I'm understanding more about the constant flow of cortisol throughout my body and wondering why I don't have a fatter stomach. The book moves through the body as someone wakes up and goes throughout their entire day- lending insight into why you "hit the wall" at 3:00pm and can't keep your eyes open, or why some people get up to the initial ring of the alarm clock while others slap at it 4-5 times before rousing in the morning. It's giving me lots of ideas as to WHY my body reacts the way it does to stress- and it's definitely giving me the feeling that (as I've known all along): I need to exercise more- particularly when it's cold and I'm stressed, because it's cheaper and more effective than antidepressants (not a fan) and caffiene (my BFF). I really like the book, you should read it.
That being said, a couple extra hours of sleeping withOUT dreaming about work would also be a welcome release from some anxiety I'm feeling. That, or perhaps falling onto a mountain of cash.
Although, the book does mention how laughter truly helps human beings in a myriad of ways, so maybe I'll just surf fail blog or some other such funny nonsense on the web to keep my sanity?
I hope you all are not caving under the stress that is wintertime, wherever you are.
On days I don't have to work, I wake up thinking about work, I'm dreaming about work. So it really feels like I am working all the time. This isn't necessarily a bad thing- seeing as much (if not all) of the anxiety around work is created and maintained by my own psyche, however- there are days I wake up completely panicked that I'm forgetting something...which might be why my stomach, skin and head are all acty funny and revolting against the stress.
I'm reading this book: Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream, by Jennifer Ackerman. It is neither helping nor hurting my exhaustion. Basically I'm understanding more about the constant flow of cortisol throughout my body and wondering why I don't have a fatter stomach. The book moves through the body as someone wakes up and goes throughout their entire day- lending insight into why you "hit the wall" at 3:00pm and can't keep your eyes open, or why some people get up to the initial ring of the alarm clock while others slap at it 4-5 times before rousing in the morning. It's giving me lots of ideas as to WHY my body reacts the way it does to stress- and it's definitely giving me the feeling that (as I've known all along): I need to exercise more- particularly when it's cold and I'm stressed, because it's cheaper and more effective than antidepressants (not a fan) and caffiene (my BFF). I really like the book, you should read it.
That being said, a couple extra hours of sleeping withOUT dreaming about work would also be a welcome release from some anxiety I'm feeling. That, or perhaps falling onto a mountain of cash.
Although, the book does mention how laughter truly helps human beings in a myriad of ways, so maybe I'll just surf fail blog or some other such funny nonsense on the web to keep my sanity?
I hope you all are not caving under the stress that is wintertime, wherever you are.
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